Reed Trees--Maps 29-33

As I begin this final essay on updating the tree maps of Reed College, I do so with a bit of wistfulness. I can't say that it approximates that felt by Edward Gibbon, who when he bade farewell to his multi-volume Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire after 20 years on the job, he sorrowfully bid adieu to what he felt was an old friend. I believe it true that the campus of Reed is now more "friendly" to me than it ever was when I was a professor there from 1982-88; I only bid it adieu now for a brief time. I hope that whoever is in charge of the web site will do whatever they can to keep the site up-to-date.

Map 29

The 34 trees on this map, which moves along Woodstock Ave. and up towards Eliot Hall, are still all there and are correctly marked. This section has a number of interesting trees, including a few Sugar Maples, an Eastern Cottonwood, a Lavalle Hawthorn and a Cornelian Cherry. Actually, the Crataegus x lavallei is now a common street tree in Salem, and thus its rarity on the Reed campus shouldn't give us the impression that it is a rare tree. The Cottonwood splits the heavens. The tallest Black Cottonwood in America is just north of my home town; the Eastern, by contrast, on the Reed campus seems to be of similar height to the surrounding Northern Red Oaks and Elms.

Speaking of the elms, Reed has five varieties of them, and I don't know the first thing at this point about differentiating them from each other---except the Chinese "Allee" Elm is easy to spot because it doesn't look like an elm. Surprisingly, Reed doesn't have an American Elm on campus, but whether one is a Dutch or English or Smooth Leaved or Scotch Elm is still a mystery to me. I took off the leaf of one of them; it was rough. And, it was a "Smooth Leaved" Elm. You get the picture. Any help that we could receive would be welcomed.

Finally, in this map are three kinds of cherries which should encourage the tree-lover to begin to distinguish among the dozens of varieties of cherry trees. It is easier said than done.

Map 30

Two of the original 27 trees on this map are no longer, but they are replicated by others nearby (a Quercus rubra and a Liquidambar styraciflua). This section is along Woodstock Ave. and abuts the main entry road to the college. Among the 25 trees standing are an astonishing 16 species. I love the variety. The most unusual tree of the bunch is the Deerhorn (or Elkhorn) Cypress (Thujopsis dolobrata), a native of Japan. In order to do well, this tree needs a moist environment, since it comes from an area of heavy rainfall. It is distinguished by bronzy red colors in winter, while it returns to its "normal" green and yellow in the spring and summer. I look forward to watching it change its "habit" in the fall. Trees seemingly know exactly how to change to maintain and proclaim their beauty. Perhaps that is why George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) said: "No man manages his affairs as well as a tree does."

Map 31

As we move up Woodstock Blvd., we now have a map with 45 trees (all still standing). My former colleague Prof. Brehm planted some of the Liquidambar styraciflua that now stand majestically at the entrance to the college. They do everything but turn right and left like the flaming cherubim guarding the entrance to the mythical Garden of Eden. Just as I showed how Maps 7 and 8 were veritable "quiz maps" for various conifers, so this map has a number of conifers that should be mentioned. By the way, Maps 7 and 8 included the following seven conifers: Douglas-firs, then two Colorado Blue Spruces, then a Western Larch, a Grand Fir, a Brewers Spruce, a Norway Spruce and a few Dawn Redwoods.

This map has the following conifers: Giant Sequoia, Coast Redwood, Mountain Hemlock, Austrian Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Scotch Pine and Western White Pine. Thus, if you took these 14 species, and then threw a few more in for good luck from other campus maps (such as the Western Hemlock, the Japanese Black and Red Pines, the Bald Cypress, White Fir etc.), you quickly arrive at about 20 conifers that invite you to appreciate them. On a personal note--I plan to make a trip to SC next week, Charleston to be exact, and I want to do some tree walks around that beautiful historic city. They mention in their tree data that they have tons of broadleaf trees but only very few conifers (duh!); thus, now is the time, if you are in the North or NW, to learn your conifers. You really won't regret it. All 45 of these trees are still standing.

Map 32

Forty-nine trees grace this map, though I think that two additional trees have been added along Woodstock Blvd. since the map was put online. I really can't add much to the fine summary given in the online map. The David's Maple (a Chinese tree named after a French Priest) has leaves that make it look not like a maple (wasn't that also the case with the Chinese 'Allee' Elm?). It is located near one of the language houses on campus (Reed is unique for a college of its size , in my judgment, in having four language houses--French, Spanish, German, Russian, even though I can't remember which is which until I am standing outside the front of one of them...). We also have a stunning variety of trees here, with the Paper Birch and Tricolor Beech catching a lot of my attention. I used to think that the Persian Parrotia was a rare tree, until I realized that it was present on the State Capitol Grounds, Reed, nine maps at the U of Oregon (two are next to each other in the education building courtyard), Oregon State Univ. and other places in OR.

Map 33

Finally, we conclude with this map, at the NE corner of the campus. This segment has suffered the most tree losses of any since the maps were done a few years ago. The map claims 49 trees; in fact there are about 42 left. And one of the trees, which was originally numbered 44 (a Malus sp. or Crabapple) is not one at all. It is either a Thuja plicata or a Chamaecyparis lawsoniana. As I said in a previous essay, I have difficulty sometimes telling the two apart. In this map one of two examples of the Photinia serratifolia (Chinese Photinia), the other of which is tucked in the South side of the Old Dorm Block. There are several familiar trees here, such as the row of Platanus x acerifolia (London Plane Tree) lining the entrance to the parking lot. A Japanese Black Pine (Pinus thunbergii--actually, two of them) and an Empress Tree (Paulownia tomentosa), are also present. Four of the five Western Red Cedars (Thuja plicata) from 13-17 have been cut down; I don't know what plans, if any, there are to replace these trees.

So, in these maps we have about 34 + 25 + 45 + 49 + 42 trees, with a few more thrown in along the way. This gives us 185 trees for this map. When combined with the 894 from the last map, we have about 1079 trees on campus. Quite a gift!

Well, I now will turn to the 108 maps (yep, you got that right) on the U of O campus. More fun awaits.

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